Abstract
(1) Background: the present study aimed to evaluate the effect of different types of warm-ups on the strength and skin temperature of Paralympic powerlifting athletes. (2) Methods: the participants were 15 male Paralympic powerlifting athletes. The effects of three different types of warm-up (without warm-up (WW), traditional warm-up (TW), or stretching warm-up (SW)) were analyzed on static and dynamic strength tests as well as in the skin temperature, which was monitored by thermal imaging. (3) Results: no differences in the dynamic and static indicators of the force were shown in relation to the different types of warm-ups. No significant differences were found in relation to peak torque (p = 0.055, F = 4.560, η2p = 0.246 medium effect), and one-repetition maximum (p = 0.139, F = 3.191, η2p = 0.186, medium effect) between the different types of warm-ups. In the thermographic analysis, there was a significant difference only in the pectoral muscle clavicular portion between the TW (33.04 ± 0.71 °C) and the WW (32.51 ± 0.74 °C) (p = 0.038). The TW method also presented slightly higher values than the SW and WW in the pectoral muscles sternal portion and the deltoid anterior portion, but with p-value > 0.05. (4) Conclusions: the types of warm-ups studied do not seem to interfere with the performance of Paralympic Powerlifting athletes. However, the thermal images showed that traditional warm-up best meets the objectives expected for this preparation phase.
Highlights
The warm-up was identified as essential to maximize the athlete’s performance in different sports and physical activities [1]
It can be concluded that the type of warm-up does not seem to interfere with the performance of Paralympic powerlifting athletes
There are no significant differences between the warm-up methods, the thermal images showed that traditional warm-up best meets the objectives expected for this preparation phase
Summary
The warm-up was identified as essential to maximize the athlete’s performance in different sports and physical activities [1]. The warm-up performed before training and competitions seems to increase body temperature, providing a decrease in stiffness, an increase in the rate of nerve conduction and an increase in metabolic efficiency [2,3], an improvement in muscle strength and power production [9], and an improvement in mechanical efficiency and contraction speed [10,11]. In this sense, it seems that during short-term static stretching, neuro-muscular activation and muscle-tendon stiffness seem to be unaffected. This may be due to an elevated muscle temperature, which tends to lead to an increase in the speed of conduction of muscle fibers and a better binding of contractile proteins (actin, myosin) [12,13], and stretching can provide this improvement
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